February 06, 2008

Bibliotheca Alexandrina—Library to the World

We had been warned about the fog. Yet we left anyway at 8:00 am from a cloudy Cairo for our three-hour drive northwest to Alexandria. It was our only day to visit the library.

And treacherous it would have been, had our driver not slowed our van to a crawl in the nearly impenetrable fog. But the six of us were all the more delighted when we emerged at seaside Alexandria into brilliant sunshine.

My family was there to have lunch with officials and then tour this shining jewel in Egypt’s crown—the new Bibliotheca Alexandria, which was born by Egyptian presidential decree to fully live up to the legend of its ancient namesake. Mike Keller, head of the libraries at Stanford and one of the board members of the new library, had arranged our visit. He had told me it was a spectacular place but no description could have prepared us for the scale and majesty of what we saw.

The buildings, perched on the shore of the Mediterranean, look as though they were transported from a World of Tomorrow. The more we learned of what was inside the stunning architecture, the more awed we became.

Sohair F. Wastawy, Chief Librarian, and Noha Adly, Director of Technology, greeted us warmly. Being Friday, the library was closed for prayers until the afternoon, which gave us time to lunch at a Greek restaurant across the crescent bay, right next to the site of the famed Alexandria lighthouse, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Yet it was the library of Alexandria, launched in 295 BCE by Ptolemy I, that left the grander legacy. It was part academy, part research center, and part library that drew scholars from around the ancient world. At its height it contained as many as 700,000 scrolls.

The library disappeared gradually. One episode was an accidental fire in 48 BCE during the Alexandrian War of Julius Caesar. To make up for the loss, Marc Anthony gave Cleopatra 200,000 scrolls.

The arrival of Christianity and subsequent Roman persecutions and schisms in the church made Alexandria a dicey place for a universal library dedicated to science and learning. In 391 CE, Emperor Theodosius banned all religions other than Christianity. In 645 CE, the Muslim conqueror Caliph Omar effectively did the same in the name of Allah.

Beyond accidental and deliberate destruction, as Matthew Battles has written, “centuries happened” to the library. Gradually the ancient Greek scrolls became incomprehensible to readers. Five centuries was, and still is, a long time for a library to last.

The new Bibliotheca Alexandrina is a chance to begin again with a library “Born Digital,” as librarian Ismail Serageldin says. It is to be a library not only to Egypt, but to humanity. It’s hard to imagine a more noble cause..

The library’s original site is now submerged a few kilometers out to sea from the present shore, yielding up its treasures to underwater archeology. I’ll take you there, virtually, in future reports.

Comments

Great pictures! That Canon is remarkably crisp(then again Canon always was, ie F-1) What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Did you happen to get any shots of the lighthouse? Would love to see them, and I look forward to your virtual tour of the original site! Thanks for the post.

UGH! I realized that as I browsed the Levenger site while in the middle of my post, I failed to finish my thought. I asked if you had taken pictures of a structure that does not exist! I was curious if you had taken pictures of the Fort at the sight of the lighthouse but left my thought incomplete. I tend to surf multiple pages at a time and forgot where I left off. How embarrassing! Anyway I enjoyed your products and plan on doing some Christmas shopping there. Levenger sure offers some exquisite merchandise. I have a 9 year old daughter that can not keep her nose out of books. She will enjoy the reading lights! And I will go for several boxes of the brass tabs for myself!(I tend to lose my place, as you know) Thank you again.

Sigh.... I must say seeing your pictures makes me feel a bit - what's the word I'm looking for - wistful? Egypt is on my list of "places I'd love to see before I die". (one of SEVERAL places on that list...) And you were obviously in Alexandria on a beautiful sunny day, despite the foggy beginning. As I write this, we're in the middle of a winter storm warning here in southeastern Iowa - ice and snow coming down. Sigh, again. What a fabulous opportunity for you and your family to see such a cool place in a spot so rich with history. Yes, I AM jealous - and I'm wondering if my meager teacher's salary will ever allow me to have such an opportunity. Certainly gives me a goal to shoot for - and seeing your pictures makes it a goal even more desirable. Thank you for sharing them.

Also, what is the deal with that Espresso Book machine thing? Is it printing or binding or copying or all of the above? Hard to tell from your pics.... And what was up with the 3D glasses? Yes, they looked kind of goofy, but I can see you were looking at a holographic skull or something. Please clarify! And can we look forward to some pyramid pics from you in the future? Just so I can sigh wistfully some more.... :-)